Dec. 8
OHIO:
Death-row inmate says his attorneys kept him from testifying in his own defense
during 2006 trial
About the case ...
Prosecution's account: Clarence Fry Jr. stalked and killed Tamela Hardison, his
estranged girlfriend, in 2005 to prevent her from testifying against him or as
retaliation for his domestic violence arrest. Hardison, 41, was stabbed to
death with a butcher knife while baby-sitting her grandchildren in her
daughter's Akron apartment.
Fry's account: Hardison was killed during a domestic quarrel when she would not
return Fry's stereo, television and other belongings, which he said she took
after his jailing for a previous domestic violence arrest. He went to the
authorities to retrieve his belongings and, when that failed, confronted
Hardison.
Appeals: The Ohio Supreme Court upheld Fry's conviction in March 2010. He
hasn't exhausted his appeals in the federal court system.
Clarence Fry Jr. says he expected to testify in his capital murder trial in
2006.
Family members of the Akron man thought he would take the stand.
The trial ended with Fry behaving strangely but never testifying.
Fry, 57, who was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2005 stabbing death
of his estranged girlfriend Tamela Hardison, returned to Summit County Common
Pleas Court on Wednesday for a hearing on whether he wasn't permitted to
testify because his attorneys thought it would hurt his chances. The Ninth
District Court of Appeals ordered the trial court to probe the issue.
"We all expected to hear from him," Sharon Brandon, Fry's sister, said of her
brother's testimony. "I thought that was the normal course of action."
Patricia Cosgrove, who was the judge in Fry's trial and is now a visiting
judge, presided over the hearing. She said she will consider the testimony and
briefs submitted by the attorneys and make a written ruling.
Cosgrove referred to Fry as a "true psychopath" when she followed a Summit
County jury's recommendation in July 2006 and sentenced Fry to death.
Fry behaved bizarrely during his trial a decade ago, frequently smiling and
laughing and, at one point, eating candy.
The Wednesday hearing was the continuation of proceedings that began July 14.
Thomas Fields, a private investigator hired by Fry's defense attorneys,
testified during the hearing that he met with Fry at the Summit County Jail
several times before his trial. He said Fry told him he wanted to testify. He
said he routinely would relay this information to defense attorneys, but he
can't recall talking to Larry Whitney or Kerry O'Brien, Fry's trial lawyers,
about Fry's desire to testify.
Brandon said she talked to her brother several times before his trial and knew
that he wanted to testify.
"We both said, 'When you tell them [the jurors] what happened, it will be OK,'"
she recalled.
Brandon said Fry told her he was concerned that his attorneys weren't going to
let him take the stand. She said she asked Whitney and O'Brien about this
during the trial and one of them - she can't recall which - told her, "We don't
think that's a good idea."
Lawrence Fry Sr., Fry's brother, said he talked to his brother daily in the
days leading up to and during the trial. Like Fry's sister, he said he knew Fry
wanted to testify and expected that to happen. He said his brother wasn't happy
with his attorneys and, at one point, attempted to get new counsel.
He said both he and his brother thought Whitney and O'Brien weren't asking
enough questions of the witnesses.
Lawrence Fry said he asked Whitney whether his brother would testify after the
prosecution had rested and the defense was about to start. He said Whitney told
him it wasn't a good idea, but added, "We'll see how it goes.'"
Richard Cline, one of Fry's new attorneys with the Ohio Public Defender's
Office, asked Lawrence Fry if he thinks his brother knew it was his decision to
make whether to testify.
"I don't think he knew," the brother responded. "If he knew he did not need
their consent, he would have testified."
Assistant Prosecutor Angela Walls-Alexander asked Lawrence Fry if he was
present in court when O'Brien announced Fry wouldn't be taking the stand. The
brother said he didn't recall.
Fry's attorneys objected to Walls-Alexander's question, noting the trial
transcript shows O'Brien's statement was made during a sidebar conference
between the attorneys and judge.
In an unusual step, Walls-Alexander, who was one of the prosecutors in Fry's
trial, took the witness stand to answer questions from Fry's attorneys. She
said O'Brien made this statement in open court when Fry was in court but the
jury wasn't present.
Fry, who testified during the first hearing in July, briefly took the stand
again Wednesday. He said he didn't hear O'Brien's announcement.
"They were at a sidebar," Fry said. "I didn't hear none of it."
(source: Akron Beacon Journal)
MISSOURI:
Apologies that come too late
Ricky Jackson. He was sentenced to death in a robbery case where a man was shot
and killed. A 12-year-old boy identified Ricky Jackson as the shooter.
Ricky Jackson served 39 years, 3 months and 9 days on death row for a crime he
didn't commit. He has become the longest-serving inmate exonerated in the
United States.
The State of Ohio compensated Ricky Jackson for his time. But let's be honest,
no amount of money will make up for all the life Ricky Jackson has lost. An
innocent man has spent the majority of his life behind bars.
In law school, we like rules and ideas. One idea is from an English judge and
politician from the 18th century. Now although it's been a long time since his
life, he left a very important idea, it's called Blackstone's ratio. The idea
is that "it is better that 10 guilty persons escape than that 1 innocent
suffer."
I want to discuss an aspect of the death penalty that is frequently overlooked.
While some may argue that the death penalty is a form of justice for victims of
crimes, we have to talk about the victims on death row who are innocent.
In the legal world of death penalties, exoneration is basically the state
telling someone on death row that he is innocent of the crime that he was
convicted of and releasing him from the penalty of death.
Since 1976, Missouri has executed 87 people; 5 of those executions were in
2015, and 1 was this year. Since 1973, only 4 people have been exonerated from
Missouri's death row.
Missouri has acknowledged by the exonerations of people on death row that
sometimes our criminal justice system fails. It gets the wrong person. However,
the 4 exonerations are just of people who had yet to be executed. This means
that Missouri has probably executed innocent people.
Ricky Jackson got money for serving time. Ricky Jackson's family is fortunate
to have him alive and free.
What do you give the family of the wrongly executed?
There are people who have been executed and afterwards have been found to be
innocent, whether it be by advances in technology or science. The fact is that
states are executing innocent people.
The death penalty is supposed to be the ultimate punishment. When you
incarcerate a person for months or years or decades for a crime he didn't
commit, that is injustice.
When you kill a person as punishment, and the person has done nothing wrong,
you are a murderer.
(source: Guest Columnist; Desiree Austin-Holliday is a student at Saint Louis
University School of Law----The St. Louis Americn)
KANSAS:
Oral arguments set in death-row inmate's appeal
Oral arguments in the appeal of a Kansas death row inmate who killed 4 members
of his family will take place Dec. 16, according to a news release from the
state Office of Judicial Administration.
Attorneys for the state and for James Kraig Kahler will each have an hour to
argue their sides before the Kansas Supreme Court. Court convenes at 9 a.m. at
the Kansas Judicial Center, 301 SW 10th Ave. in Topeka. The proceedings will
also be broadcast online at www.kscourts.org.
Kahler, 53, received his death sentence for the November 2009 shooting deaths
of his estranged wife, Karen Kahler; her grandmother, 89-year-old Dorothy
Wight; and his daughters, 18-year-old Emily and 16-year-old Lauren, after he
reportedly became upset that his wife had taken a female lover and filed for
divorce. The case was prosecuted in Osage County.
Kahler raised 10 issues in his appeal. Seven claim errors occurred before and
during his trial. The other three attack his death sentence.
Kahler is one of 10 men currently on death row in Kansas. No one has been
executed since 1965.
WHO IS ON KANSAS' DEATH ROW?
These 10 men are facing death sentences in Kansas (with county and year of
sentencing in parentheses). They are listed chronologically in order of when
their crimes were committed. An 11th died in prison earlier this year while
waiting for his appeal to be heard by the Kansas Supreme Court.
-- Gary Kleypas (Crawford County, 2008): For the March 30, 1996, rape and
murder of 20-year-old Carrie Williams, a Pittsburg State University student.
The Kansas Supreme Court overturned his sentence in 2001, but another jury
condemned him to death again in 2008. His 2nd death sentence was upheld Friday.
-- John E. Robinson Sr. (Johnson County, 2002): For the murders of Izabel
Lewicka and Suzette Trouten, whose bodies were found in barrels on his property
in rural Linn County. He was also sentenced to life in prison for killing Lisa
Stasi, who disappeared in 1985 and was never found. The Kansas Supreme Court
upheld his death sentence in November 2015. -- Jonathan and Reginald Carr
(Sedgwick County, 2002): For 4 shooting deaths in Wichita during a crime spree
in December 2000. Found guilty of invading a home, sexually abusing the 5
residents, forcing them to withdraw money from ATMs, then shooting them in a
soccer field. Killed were Jason Befort, Brad Heyka, Heather Muller and Aaron
Sander. The Kansas Supreme Court threw out their death sentences but the U.S.
Supreme Court overturned that decision and sent the cases back for further
review in 2015.
-- Douglas Belt (Sedgwick County, 2004): For the June 25, 2002, sexual assault
and decapitation of Lucille Gallegos in a vacant west Wichita apartment, where
she was a housekeeper. Belt died in prison in April 2016, before his appeal
could be heard. The Kansas Supreme Court agreed to take up issues that could
lead to Belt's exoneration and upheld his capital murder conviction Friday.
-- Sidney Gleason (Barton County, 2006): For the shooting deaths of Miki
Martinez and her boyfriend, Darren Wornkey, on Feb. 24, 2004. Prosecutors said
Gleason and his cousin Damian Thompson worried that Martinez would tell police
about their involvement in the stabbing and robbery of a 76-year-old man. The
Kansas Supreme Court threw out his death sentence but the U.S. Supreme Court
overturned that decision and sent the case back for further review in 2015.
-- Scott Cheever (Greenwood County, 2007): For the January 2005 shooting of
Sheriff Matt Samuels at a home near Virgil, where authorities also found a
suspected methamphetamine lab. The Kansas Supreme Court overturned Cheever's
conviction in 2012, saying his right against self-incrimination was violated by
prosecutors who used a court-ordered mental evaluation from a different trial
against him. A year later, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the decision,
noting that Cheever's own expert raised the issue of whether methamphetamine
use had damaged his brain. The Kansas Supreme Court upheld Cheever's death
sentence in July 2016.
-- Justin Thurber (Cowley County, 2009): For the January 2007 abduction,
sexual assault and killing of 19-year-old college student Jodi Sanderholm. Her
body was found in a wooded area near where her car had been sunk in a lake. His
appeal hasn't been heard yet by the Kansas Supreme Court.
-- James Kraig Kahler (Osage County, 2011): For the November 2009 murders of
his estranged wife, Karen Kahler; her grandmother, 89-year-old Dorothy Wight;
and the Kahlers' daughters, Emily, 18, and Lauren, 16. Kahler was reportedly
upset that his wife had allegedly taken a female lover and filed for divorce.
His appeal hasn't been heard yet by the Kansas Supreme Court.
-- Frazier Glenn Miller Jr. (Johnson County, 2015): For the April 2014
shooting deaths of 3 people outside Kansas City-area Jewish sites. His appeal
hasn't been heard yet by the Kansas Supreme Court.
-- Kyle Trevor Flack (Franklin County, 2016): For the shooting deaths of 3
adults and an 18-month-old child. His appeal hasn't been heard yet by the
Kansas Supreme Court.
(source: kansas.com)
CALIFORNIA:
Last words of California's executed inmates
13 inmates have been executed in California since 1978, and 7 of those
prisoners chose to make final statements.
Robert Alton Harris
Harris was convicted of abducting and murdering two teenage boys in 1978.
Last words: "You can be a king or a street sweeper, but everyone dances with
the Grim Reaper."
William George Bonin
Bonin, also known as the "Freeway Killer," kidnapped, robbed, raped and killed
a total of 14 teenage boys between 1979 and 1980.
Last words: "That I feel the death penalty is not an answer to the problems at
hand. That I feel it sends the wrong message to the youth of the country. Young
people act as they see other people acting instead of as people tell them to
act. And I would suggest that when a person has a thought of doing anything
serious against the law, that before they did, that they should go to a quiet
place and think about it seriously."
Thomas Martin Thompson
Thompson was convicted of the 1981 rape and murder of a 20-year-old woman.
Last words: "For 17 years the AG has been pursuing the wrong man. In time he
will come to know this. I don't want anyone to avenge my death. Instead I want
you to stop killing people. God bless."
Manuel Babbitt
Babbitt was convicted of 1st-degree murder in connection with the slaying of a
78-year-old in a South Sacramento apartment.
Last words: "I forgive all of you."
Darrell Keith Rich
Rich was convicted of was convicted of slaying 4 people over a 2-month period
in 1978.
Last words: "Peace."
Robert Lee Massie
Massie was convicted in connection with a shooting death during a liquor store
robbery.
Last words: "Forgiveness. Giving up all hope for a better past."
Clarence Ray Allen
Allen was sentenced to death after committing 3 murders.
Last words: "'Hoka Hey, it's a good day to die.' Thank you very much. I love
you all. Goodbye."
(source: KCRA news)
******************
Accused Serial Killer to Defend Himself in Rape, Murder Trial
The man accused of raping and murdering 4 women is defending himself in a death
penalty trial that began on Wednesday.
Steven Dean Gordon, 47, won the right to defend himself in his death penalty
trial earlier this year.
"You've heard the expression, 'Trying to right the wrong?'" he said. "Well,
that's what I'm trying to accomplish and only cowards hide behind their
attorneys."
Gordon told jurors it was his partner, Franc Cano, who strangled the 4 women,
all with ties to prostitution.
Only one has been found, Jarrea Esteep. Her naked body was discovered on a
conveyer belt, at an Anaheim recycling plant.
In court, the defendant said what happened to Esteep was "horrifying." But he
didn't go into detail.
Gordon kept pointing the finger of blame at Cano, laying out a story of a man
who was his friend, his partner and also the guilty one. Prosecutors say both
men wore GPS tracking devices at the time of the crimes. Both were registered
sex offenders. Cano has not yet been tried.
"In no way am I a saint, but I have a conscience," he said. "He does not. He's
a predator and I'm going to prove it to you."
Among those Gordon called to the stand were co-workers who testified they knew
he hung out with Cano and that both men lived in their cars in a parking lot.
Gordon says over the next few days he will call police and probation officers
as he continues to build his defense.
(source: nbclosangeles.com)
USA:
Defense lawyer asks jury to spare Dylann Roof the death sentence
The death-penalty trial of admitted white-supremacist killer Dylann Roof got
under way Wednesday morning with his lawyer conceding the facts were "open and
shut" - and saying the only question left was the issue of punishment.
Defense lawyer David Bruck told jurors that he expected them to find Roof, 22,
guilty but hoped they would spare him from execution for slaughtering nine
black churchgoers in a bid to touch off a race war last year.
"Remember, life means life in prison," Bruck said, according to tweets from a
WIS10 TV reporter covering the trial.
Bruck's opening statement came after prosecutor Assistant US Attorney Jay
Richardson vividly described Roof's deadly rampage during a Bible study session
at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston.
As the victims stood to pray, Roof pulled out a Glock .45-caliber pistol and
repeatedly shot the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who had given Roof a Bible and a
seat next to him, Richardson said.
Roof continued firing at other victims, coolly replacing the handgun's magazine
when he ran out of bullets, but intentionally left 1 woman, Polly Sheppard,
alive "to tell his story," Richardson said.
Roof also told a dying victim, Tywanza Sanders - who tried in vain to stop the
massacre - why he did it, saying, "Y'all are raping our white women. Y'all are
taking over the world," the prosecutor said.
Before heading to the church on June 17, 2015, Roof typed out a manifesto that
was posted online via a Russian computer server that Richardson described as a
"call to arms" directed at white people.
As spectators were leaving the tightly packed courtroom following the
conclusion of opening statements, 2 women collapsed in their seats in the
courthouse.
Paramedics took 1, a victim's relative, for hospital treatment, while the other
- an unidentified white woman - remained at the courthouse, officials said.
The prosecution's 1st witness Wednesday afternoon will be Sanders' mother,
Felecia Sanders, who is the only other adult to survive the bloodbath.
Sanders and her 11-year-old granddaughter both escaped death by hiding under
the round table around which everyone had gathered in the church basement.
Sanders was in the courtroom for opening statements, along with Gary
Washington, the son of victim Ethel Lance. Washington is deaf, and followed the
proceedings with the help of a sign-language interpreter.
(source: New York Post)
************************
What happens next if Dylann Roof is sentenced to death
On Wednesday morning, jurors filed into a Charleston, S.C., courtroom to hear
opening statements in the trial of Dylann Roof, the 22-year-old charged with
federal hate crimes after the massacre last year at a historic church just a
mile from the courthouse. Prosecutors outlined the shooting in brutal detail,
saying Roof fired dozens of rounds, shooting the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, the
church's pastor, "over and over again."
More than a year after the shooting, Roof is in court for the 1st of 2 trials.
(He has also been charged with murder in state court, and faces trial on that
next year.) Authorities say Roof confessed to the killings of 9 black
parishioners at the Mother Emanuel church. His guilt in the trial is
effectively unchallenged. An attorney for Roof did not argue with the facts
detailed by the federal government Wednesday, and they have offered to plead
guilty in exchange for a sentence of life in prison.
Prosecutors have not accepted that offer. Instead, they are still seeking a
rare federal death sentence in the case, a decision that has caused unease
among some families of the victims. And if Roof is convicted and sentenced to
die, it is not clear whether the government would be able to carry out the
punishment.
Federal death sentences are extremely rare, and executions are even less
common. There are 62 inmates on federal death row, according to the Death
Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based nonprofit, compared to nearly
3,000 condemned inmates in states nationwide. Since the federal death penalty
statute was reinstated in 1988 and expanded in 1994, the government has put 3
inmates to death, all by lethal injection.
The last federal execution was more than a decade ago. Louis Jones Jr., a Gulf
War veteran, convicted of the 1995 kidnapping, rape and murder of Tracie Joy
McBride, a 19-year-old Army recruit, was put to death in 2003. 2 years before
that, the government executed Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing and
Juan Raul Garza for murdering 3 men.
The government has taken a little more than 200 federal death penalty cases to
trial since 1988, according to the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel
Project. (Attorneys general had agreed to let prosecutors seek death sentences
in more cases, but many of those ended with plea deals or the government opting
not to pursue the death penalty, the project's records show.) In the federal
cases that actually saw juries decide on a sentence, they opted for life
imprisonment about twice as often as death sentences.
Most recently, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death on federal charges last
year for his role in the Boston Marathon bombing. Tsarnaev, the newest addition
to the federal death row, is being held at the federal penitentiary in
Florence, Colo., according to the Bureau of Prisons. If he is put to death, he
will be brought to the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., where federal
death sentences are carried out.
The Justice Department sought death for Tsarnaev last year and Roof this year,
but it has also announced what is effectively a federal death penalty
moratorium while officials review their policy; it does not look like this
review will finish before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. President
Obama has called the death penalty "deeply troubling," but has remained in
favor of using it for particularly heinous crimes, while Trump has been a vocal
supporter of the death penalty.
Nationwide, polls have shown that American support for the death penalty has
declined since peaking in the 1990s, and a survey earlier this year showed that
less than 1/2 of Americans supported the death penalty for the first time in
decades. (A different poll, not long after, found stronger support for capital
punishment.)
Republicans still strongly back the death penalty, while a majority of
Democrats oppose it. White people are much more likely than black or Hispanic
people to support the practice, which studies show has been disproportionately
sought for black inmates. In South Carolina, a poll showed a similar racial
split, with most black people saying Roof should get life in prison and most
white people saying he should be sentenced to death.
But if Roof is condemned to die, it remains unclear when such a penalty could
be carried out. The appeals process could stretch on for years, and whether he
is actually executed could depend on the status of the death penalty nationwide
at that time.
Death sentences and executions alike have plummeted nationwide in recent years,
while states seeking to execute inmates have struggled to obtain lethal
injection drugs amid an ongoing shortage. Some states do have alternative
methods on the books, but lethal injection remains the primary method of
execution nationwide. (In a minor coincidence, opening statements on Wednesday
occurred on the 34th anniversary of the country's 1st lethal injection, which
was carried out by officials in Texas.)
Federal officials said last year that the government did not have any lethal
injection drugs, which are increasingly difficult for officials to obtain, due
to the shortage sparked, in part, by European objections to capital punishment
interrupting the supply of drugs. When asked last month if the Bureau of
Prisons had any drugs or planned to try to obtain any, a spokesman said the
agency was "currently in the process of revising its execution protocol."
The current federal lethal injection protocol involves 3 drugs - an anesthetic,
paralytic and a drug to stop the heart - a combination commonly used in
executions across the country until the drug shortage began. As a result,
states have turned to a number of other drugs and combinations, some of which
were used in executions that went awry. Some states have sought to hide the
identity of drug suppliers, while others have turned to older, largely
abandoned methods of execution, like the electric chair or a firing squad.
Questions about Roof's sentence will not end with this case. Roof also faces a
potential death sentence in his state trial, on charges of murder and attempted
murder, set to begin next year.
If he is convicted and sentenced on the state charges, Roof would become the
39th person on South Carolina's death row, which last sent an inmate to the
death chamber in 2011. South Carolina does not have any lethal injection drugs,
a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections said Wednesday, and it does not
appear likely it will obtain any in the near future.
(source: Washington Post)
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